Could a supplement stop your cravings for high-calorie foods?

It's Friday, it's almost the weekend, and we can't wait to slump on the sofa tonight with a takeaway pizza in one hand and a rather large wine in the other.

We all love indulging in those forbidden foods every now and again, but if you're someone who suffers with a faulty 'off switch' then help could be on hand.

Scientists have discovered a clever new food supplement that could switch off those pesky cravings before they even enter your brain, a new study suggests.

The powdered food supplement, based on a molecule produced by bacteria in the gut, works to reduce cravings for high-calorie foods like pizza, chocolate and sugary cakes.

Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow asked 20 volunteers to consume a milkshake that either contained an ingredient called inulin-propionate ester, or a type of fibre called inulin.

Previous studies have shown bacteria in the gut release a compound called propionate when they digest the fibre inulin, which can signal to the brain to reduce appetite. However the inulin-propionate ester supplement releases much more propionate in the intestines than inulin alone.

After drinking the milkshakes, the participants in the current study were given an MRI scan, where they were shown pictures of low or high calorie foods such as salad, fish and vegetables or chocolate, cake and pizza.

They found that when volunteers drank the milkshake containing inulin-propionate ester, they had less activity in the area of the brain that regulates food cravings.

The volunteers also rated the foods as less appealing after they'd drunk the milkshake that was infused with the supplement.

In the second part of the study, which is published in July edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the volunteers were given a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce, and asked to eat as much as they'd like. After drinking the inulin-propionate ester, they ate 10 per cent less pasta than when they drank the milkshake that contained inulin alone.

In a previous research study by the same team, published in 2013, they found that overweight volunteers who added the inulin-propionate ester supplement to their food every day, gained less weight over six months compared to volunteers who added only inulin to their meals.

Professor Gary Frost, senior author of the study from the Department of Medicine at Imperial, said: 'Our previous findings showed that people who ate this ingredient gained less weight – but we did not know why. This study is filling in a missing bit of the jigsaw — and shows that this supplement can decrease activity in brain areas associated with food reward at the same time as reducing the amount of food they eat.'

Dr Douglas Morrison, author of the paper from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, added: 'We developed inulin-propionate ester to investigate the role of propionate produced by the gut microbiota in human health. This study illustrates very nicely that signals produced by the gut microbiota are important for appetite regulation and food choice. This study also sheds new light on how diet, the gut microbiome and health are inextricably linked adding to our understanding of how feeding our gut microbes with dietary fibre is important for healthy living.'